Tracy Letts is a multifaceted award winning actor and playwright. From pulp-inspired crime, to horror, to his own family tragedies, the subject matter of Tracy Letts' plays has been diverse. Letts received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play August: Osage County and a Tony Award for his portrayal of George in the revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? He has written the screenplays of three films adapted from his own plays. August: Osage County written by Tracy Letts, is undoubtedly a brilliant play about a dysfunctional family that is obligated to deal with veiled duplicities an cruelty. It centers on the home of the Weston’s up country in Oklahoma -overheated Midwestern Plains territory. When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after Dad disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets.
The matriarch, Violet, depressed and addicted to pain pills and “truth-telling,” is joined by her three daughters and their problematic lovers, who harbor their own deep secrets, her sister Mattie Fae and her family, well-trained in the Weston family art of cruelty, and finally, the observer of the chaos, the young Cheyenne housekeeper Johnna, who was hired by Beverly just before his disappearance. Holed up in the large family estate in Osage County, Oklahoma, tensions heat up and boil over in the ruthless August heat. All major actions in this play show the character’s need for escape through a push a pull pattern found within the scenes. Throughout act two, the characters constantly push and pull against one another, unable to keep their bodies or their mouths still and quiet. They argue and fight one moment, and then the next, they have nothing to say. Their restless demeanor illustrates their need to escape from their family both physically and emotionally.
The language throughout the play conveys a lot about the characters’ eager attempts to escape their past. Karen’s undying attempts to make her new fiancé Steve a part of the family illustrates her need to distinguish herself as her own woman. Throughout second act, she continuously talks about him to the others, making him out to be the greatest thing that has ever happened to her. In making Steve a part of the family and getting her family’s approval, she would be able to truly distinguish herself away from her hometown in Oklahoma. She wants to be her own person with Steve, living a new, glamorous life away from all the madness and disorder she once knew. With this sporadic language, Letts also utilizes contrasting images of order and harmony to further convey a sense of disorder. The house is constantly a mess, something that is inevitable in a household with two substance abusers. However, Johnna creates a sense of order that the house does not possess on it’s own.
Letts also uses literal images of the blacked-out windows at the beginning of the show to create a setting in which the characters want to escape. . From the top of the first act, the audience immediately sees a dark, gloomy home. Another way Letts shows the inescapable feeling in this show is through the unbearable Oklahoma heat. The heat is representative of the intolerable dysfunction present in Beverly and Violet’s home. Once Beverly started talking about Violet’s addiction, Johnna physically shows the audience that she is hot. This idea is manifested throughout the play to show how inescapable the family dynamics are. Another example of Violet’s need to escape through her drugs comes out through her slurred dialect. In the beginning scene when she first meets Johnna, she can hardly get a solid sentence formed.
Through this language, the audience can quickly pick up on her inability to control the affect the drugs are having on her body. In an attempt to regain control and make sense, she tries to over-articulate. But despite her attempts, the drugs have taken over her ability to do so, thus causing her to slur her words. Violet is unable to process her sadness and anxiety. She cannot fathom the thought of having to take care of the bills and house all by herself now that her husband is gone. She is slowly realizing that she will be the one taking care of everything now, and cannot deal with all of the overwhelming feelings that come with the responsibility. This slow loss of control is shown in her taking pills in order to escape from her pain. A prominent theme in August:
Osage County is the way shame is used to dehumanize another character. Each character does it in some form or another, giving him or her a feeling of false power over the other. Another theme in this show is the character’s need to escape their problems with something external, whether that is drugs or physically leaving home. Barbara and Karen moved away from home and started their own families; Bill escaped his relationship with Barbara by having an affair; Jean escapes her father’s affair and parent’s separation through marijuana; Ivy and Little Charles plan to get away by moving to New York together; Beverly and Violet used alcohol and drugs in order to escape their troubles.
